22 FRONTENAC AT QUEBEC. x [1672. 



nac, " and this is the complete dependence of the 

 grand vicar and the seminary priests on the Jesuits, 

 for they never do the least thing without their 

 order: so that they {the Jesuits) are masters in 

 spiritual matters, which, as you know, is a power- 

 ful lever for moving every thing else." 1 And he 

 complains that they have spies in town and coun- 

 try, that they abuse the confessional, intermeddle 

 in families, set husbands against wives, and parents 

 against children, and all, as they say, for the greater 

 glory of God. " I call to mind every day, Mon- 

 seigneur, what you did me the honor to say to me 

 when I took leave of you, and every day I am 

 satisfied more and more of the great importance 

 to the king's service of opposing the slightest of 

 the attempts which are daily made against his 

 authority." He goes on to denounce a certain 

 sermon, preached by a Jesuit, to the great scandal 

 of loyal subjects, wherein the father declared that 

 the king had exceeded his powers in licensing the 

 trade in brandy when the bishop had decided it to 

 be a sin, together with other remarks of a seditious 

 nature. " I was tempted several times," pursues 

 Frontenac, " to leave the church with my guards 

 and interrupt the sermon ; but I contented my- 

 self with telling the grand vicar and the superior 

 of the Jesuits, after it was over, that I was very 

 much surprised at what I had heard, and demanded 

 justice at their hands. They greatly blamed the 

 preacher, and disavowed him, attributing his lan- 

 guage, after their custom, to an excess of zeal, and 



1 Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672. 



